The Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been voted the Professional Footballers’ Association’s men’s player of the year, with Chelsea’s Sam Kerr collecting the women’s award.
The Manchester City midfielder Phil Foden retained the PFA young player of the year award, with the club’s forward Lauren Hemp named the women’s best young player for the third consecutive season.
Salah topped the poll, which was voted for by PFA members, ahead of Kevin De Bruyne, who had won for the previous two years and was an integral part of the City team that beat Liverpool to the Premier League title by one point.
The Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo and the Tottenham striker Harry Kane had also made the shortlist, along with Salah’s Liverpool teammates Virgil van Dijk and Sadio Mané.
This is Salah’s second PFA player of the year trophy after he previously won in 2018. This season he helped Jürgen Klopp’s side to win the Carabao and FA Cups, and to reach the Champions League final, where they lost to Real Madrid.
The Egypt international Salah, who finished as the Premier League’s joint top scorer alongside Tottenham’s Son Heung-min with 23 goals, was announced as the PFA men’s player of the year at a virtual ceremony on Thursday.
“It’s a great honour to win a trophy, individual or collective, and this one is big, so very happy and very proud of that,” said Salah, who was also voted the men’s footballer of the year by the Footballer Writers’ Association.
“This one is a really good one to win, especially because it’s voted by players. It shows you that you’ve worked really hard and you get what you worked for. I have my room with trophies in a cabinet and I made sure that I had another space for one more. I always keep space and just try to imagine that the trophies are going to come.”
Kerr scored 20 goals for Chelsea to be top scorer in the FA Women’s Super League, helping Emma Hayes’s team win the domestic double after beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
“It’s a massive honour whenever you’re voted by your peers. I think that’s the highest honour as a player, so it’s an amazing feeling,” said Kerr, who was also named the FWA’s women’s footballer of the year.
Arsenal’s Dutch forward Vivianne Miedema and her Gunners teammate Kim Little were also on the PFA shortlist along with Manchester City’s Alex Greenwood and Hemp as well as Chelsea’s Pernille Harder.
Foden, 22, topped an all-England shortlist on the men’s young player award. The Arsenal midfield duo Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, Conor Gallagher, who spent the season on loan at Crystal Palace from Chelsea, the Aston Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey and the Chelsea full-back Reece James were also nominated.
“I’m really honoured, to be honest, especially to win it back-to-back, it shows that I’ve come a long way this year with the consistency of my game,” Foden said. “Hopefully I can win the main award in the future, but it’s all about taking small steps and improving.”
Hemp, meanwhile, is the first person to win the PFA young player of the year award four times. The Chelsea forward Lauren James, Arsenal’s Norwegian star Frida Maanum, the Tottenham striker Jessica Naz, the Manchester United forward Ella Toone and the Brighton defender Maya Le Tissier made up the rest of the shortlist.
“It’s an honour to get this again. I think especially for it to be voted for by players that I’ve played against and come up against,” said the 21-year-old Hemp. “I look to many of them as role models as well so it’s an honour to be picked from them. I’m going to keep working hard to make sure that I continue on the right path.”
The 2022 PFA merit award saw two former England managers honoured, with Roy Hodgson and Hope Powell acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to football.
“I never won any trophies as a player unfortunately, so it is nice to be recognised by fellow professionals. It will have pride of place,” said Hodgson, 74, who left his role with Watford at the end of the season having taken over in January.
Powell, who is the Brighton women’s manager, added: “I feel lucky and blessed to be in the game after many years.”
Source: The Guardian
BDST: 1111 HRS, June 10, 2022
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